Reviews tagging 'Racism'

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

27 reviews

hannaheinhorn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

this book was a fun read, but i almost felt like it should’ve been longer in order to resolve itself properly. if that were the case, the book would definitely be like 4 stars for me. ambiguous endings are great when they’re not cop-outs, and i felt like this one left enough to the imagination to make the message of the book so unclear. based on how the story ended, it kind of seems like thiago was just suffering to suffer, which is a conclusion that i don’t think the author meant for the audience to come to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gore, Car accident, Body horror, Death, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Xenophobia, Death of parent, Racism, Classism, and Gun violence

blueowl2ivy's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Racism, Death of parent, and Xenophobia

ghost_rider's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A solid exploration of what greif feels like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide, Gore, Medical trauma, Death, Murder, Body horror, Alcohol, Death of parent, Violence, Car accident, and Blood

Minor: Xenophobia, Racism, and Cursing

rorunyon96's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

kassiebee's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

grief, loss, family, and a some pretty cool mexican supernatural elements. 

i was creeped out, my heart was heavy, i was taken to another world.. totally immersed, i finished this booked totally jaded. and i loved it. 

a bit slow in the beginning but with a purpose. i sensed the slow descent of his mental health, still with a possibility that nothing is really happening. until its not. 

im going to go watch some cartoons now ..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Cancer, and Medical content

Minor: Racism and Drug use

autumnrevisited's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Xenophobia, Suicide, Mental illness, Blood, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

kather_doc's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Grief, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Racism

jkar7's review against another edition

I got to 75% and it was decent. Then I started just skimming and quit at 81%. Some people may enjoy books like this, but don't. 
What really grabbed my attention was how grief was described. I found it to be quite accurate and I connect that part. And then the book fell off a cliff and it was too ridiculous to continue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Stalking, Vomit, Racism, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

apollo0325's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

First, I'd like to say the length of this novel saved this from being a DNF for me. I almost DNF'd midway through part one, but I said fuck it, it's only a 6 hour audiobook and I decided to keep going. I'm glad I did. This book encompasses such a specific angle of grief that isn't explored enough in literature especially under the lens of psychological horror/body horror/cosmic horror (of sorts).

I won't lie, the beginning is VERY slow because it's setting up Thiago's relationship with Vera, his mental state at her loss, and what life was like with her. However, after part one, we really get a grasp of what this novel is going to be in a way. I kept seeing people online pitch this book as one about grief and a "haunted Alexa" but babes, the haunted Alexa part is maybe 10% of the novel within part one and mentioned later on. I'd pitch this book as a psychological horror examining grief and how one deals with loss as someone basically loses their grip on reality (psychosis). Thiago is someone who is absolutely stricken with bad luck 100% of the time, and you learn this very quickly in part one. It makes this book all the more tragic.

If you're sensitive to animal death/violence especially with dogs, please cautiously read this book. It doesn't occur until part two, but everything snowballs very quickly after that point.

The ending was simultaneously confusing and tragic. I knew Thiago was succumbing to his grief, but it was really unclear as to what was actually happening to him. That's more of a me problem + listening through the audiobook. NGL, I also kind of hate the idea that people's tragedies/fates are inescapable, especially when it is based on generational trauma. It makes it feel like there is no hope at all and instead you should just die to save the people around you. It's a very hopeless ending, but that's also my interpretation. Others may feel differently! I think the open ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusions on what was going on with Thiago.

This book was brutal, unsettling, and tragic. The audiobook narrator was also FANTASTIC. I loved his narration. I'd read another book with him narrating it for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abandonment and Classism

If you are sensitive to animal death / viscera, I would not recommend this book unless you feel okay going in knowing it WILL be descriptive and detailed. The body horror in this one is also very well described.

not necessarily a spoiler but to be safe, sticking it here. The book can also be interpreted as a psychosis/psychological break of the protagonist.